Monday, July 29, 2013

Dennis Chappabitty on UTE Termination Act and Injustice Against Mixed Blood Uinta Utes

Attorney Dennis Chappabitty enlightens us on this egregious act against Native Americans.

U.S. Congress passed the Ute Termination Act on August 27, 1954, 59 years ago.

Utah Congressional members won’t listen to pleas to repeal this genocidal act. Why? When the Act was passed to strip 490 so-called “Mixed Blood” Uinta Utes of their tribal identity, non-Indians swooped in and used hook and crook to take their “shares” that have now extremely valuable and those non-Indians have become such powerful force, the “Ute Distribution Corporation”, that Congress is scared to repeal this racist law. The “shares” had the words, “void if transferred or sold” within a certain time.

BIA knew these interlopers were cheating the unsophisticated exterminated Uintas of the only way they and their families could get ahead in the world after Congress stripped them of their identities and did nothing. In effect, the non-Indian outsiders took the shares and now comprise a large segment of the Ute Distribution Corporation thereby themselves becoming “Uinta Utes”.
They are rich and wealthy while many of the 490 Mixed Blood Uinta Utes who were conned out of their Ute Distribution Corporation shares live in poverty and die off daily wondering why Congress won’t repeal this shameful Act. Lawsuit after lawsuit has been filed yet the powerful prevail and do not want our own genocidal law to get out on the international level.

We obtained a list of UDC shareholders 7 years back and even the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints holds these extremely valuable UDC shares. UDC operates in secrecy and no one in public knows who sells and trades these shares. Funny, the Act also intended to terminate the entire Ute Tribe and that has not happened.

So, if the entire Ute Tribe has not been terminated then the act has not been completed and is void. Countdown to 30 Days of Our Nation’s Shame – Repeal the Ute Termination and Partition Act – Our own “Door of No Return.” Am I the only Indigenous Lawyer in this Nation who cares about this massive festering historical injustice in our own State of Utah?

Check out the website:  www.undeclaredutes.net

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